


Give love one more chance (Under Pressure Outtakes)

by JHSC



Series: The Ultimate Kidfic of Ultimate Destiny [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (Except it's Coulson so uh that tag may not be entirely accurate), Angst, Deleted Scenes, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Outtakes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 06:24:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20925617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JHSC/pseuds/JHSC
Summary: Barney avoids Clint in 2008, then searches for him in 2012.Cut scenes from "Under Pressure," written before Paul took over the entire narrative and made these scenes obsolete.





	Give love one more chance (Under Pressure Outtakes)

**Author's Note:**

> So I was cleaning out my documents folder today and found these scenes, which I'd written back in February 2017 at the very beginning of the development of "Under Pressure." In that original version, 1) Barney actively avoids Clint even more, 2) Barney and Clint aren't reunited until 2012, and 3) Paul only sticks around for 500 words.
> 
> Well. As we all know. Paul had something to say about that. So these scenes hung out at the bottom of one of my outlines until they were rediscovered this morning. I've cleaned them up a bit, but they're unbeta-d and not canonical for the UKOUD-verse. But they're really angsty? So here ya go. <3

* 2008 *

The Hulk trashes Harlem, and Barney is part of the first team on the ground after SHIELD closes it down. He hears over the radio a list of injured and where they are -- and that Clint is injured and in an ambulance parked two blocks down. Barney knocks five other agents out of the way as he sprints down the ruined sidewalk, heart in his throat.

He stops right next to the open doors of the ambulance, out of sight of whoever’s inside. Clint says something he can’t make out, voice too low and scratchy. A woman says something back. Relief floods Barney’s entire body, and he knows that no matter how much he tells himself that he doesn’t care -- that Clint hates him, and he should hate Clint back and get on with his life -- he knows he really truly does. But he’s not going to show himself, not while Clint is hurt. Clint doesn’t need to see his face and get upset, waste energy sending him away when he needs that energy to breathe, to pump blood, to heal.

Instead, Barney stays where he is, leaning his shoulder against the side of the ambulance as the clean-up continues around them, and just listens to the precious sounds of his brother’s voice.

A few minutes later, he’s shocked out of his reverie when he hears the woman clearly say, “He’s passed out, now, you can come over here.”

He starts, gets ready to bolt, and she continues, “You can’t hide forever. Come on, Barney.”

Barney steels himself and takes the four steps to face the open doors of the ambulance. Clint is on a gurney, asleep and bruised. A young woman, red-haired and white and dressed in black combat gear, is sitting next to him, wiping her hands off with a paper towel.

“How do you know who I am?” Barney asks.

“I looked you up a long time ago,” she replies nonchalantly.

Barney glances quick at Clint and she reads his expression, says, “No, I didn’t tell him. I already learned that lesson.”

“Who are you?” Barney asks.

She tips her head to the side and looks at him, hands dropping. “Agent Romanov.”

Barney scowls at her reticence. “And why were you looking me up, Agent Romanov?”

“I wanted to know about you,” she says plainly. “Make sure you were a good person.

Barney takes the answer like a punch to the solar plexus.

“Am I?” he asks, and is surprised to find how invested he is on hearing her answer. Agent Romanov tilts her head and looks at him for a minute.

“You left him,” she says. “On the concrete. Then again at the hospital.”

Barney pales, because those were the worst two days of his life and he doesn’t want to think about them. He knows he left his brother. He knows that.

“You’ve known where he was for years, but you’ve never called or tried to talk to him.” She watches him as he nods. He knows that, too. She continues, “You’re only here now because he’s hurt, because he needs you.”

Barney frowns. “He doesn’t want me here, and he definitely doesn’t need me.”

Agent Romanov rolls her eyes at that, making her look even younger. “You’re stupid if you think that’s true. He always needs you. But not if you’re going to leave him again.”

“I can’t--”

She cuts him off as she fiddles with the sensors attached to Clint’s body, the IV delivering him fluids and maybe more than that. “He’s going to wake up again soon. If he sees you, he’ll be happy that you’re here. But if he sees you, you can’t leave him again. I will kill you if you do that to him again.”

Barney looks at her intense expression. The protective way she hovers over Clint’s space, and the gentle way she touches his skin. He believes her completely. He nods. Says, “I’m glad he’s got you.”

Agent Romanov doesn’t say anything, doesn’t change that intense stare, as he steps away from the open back doors of the ambulance and returns to his hiding place. Within less than a minute, he hears Clint say, “Hey, kiddo. Think I fell asleep. I miss anything?”

“You’re fine, Dad. You didn’t miss anything.”

Barney leaves before he can hear anything else. Clint is managing just fine without him.

* 2012 *

It takes Barney three days to track Clint down after New York. He spends a large chunk of it either driving, or on the phone trying to chase down someone who knows who the hell his brother is and where to find him, or both. No one on the news has identified Clint beyond his callsign, which both helps and hinders his search.

Eventually, he makes it as far into the city as he can get before roadblocks turn him back. He’s on the line with someone from SHIELD, and then he’s transferred once again, and he’s just about given up hope when a voice answers, “This is Agent Romanov.”

Finally, thank god, someone who’ll have answers. “Agent Romanov, it’s Barney Barton, you know who I am, where is he? Is he alright?”

“Barney? He’s…” she pauses, and his heart is in his throat until she continues, “--asleep right now.”

“You’re with him?” he asks, the feeling of relief making him lightheaded.

“Of course I am.”

“Do you-- can I--” For all the bullying and posturing he’s done over the past three days trying to find someone who can lead him to Clint, now that he has, he doesn’t know what to say.

Then Agent Romanov takes it out of his hands by saying, “I really don’t have time for your bullshit today, Barney. He can’t lose anyone else. If I let you--”

“Who did he lose?”

“His husband,” she rasps out, and Barney feels suddenly nauseous. “He lost his husband, and his friends, and part of his mind for a while. If I let you up, you can’t pull another disappearing act, it’ll kill him.”

Barney takes a deep breath. Aliens. Destruction. Death. He can barely process any of it, but. Clint. Clint’s hurt, and he’s been widowed. Fuck. “Yeah. Yeah I’ll stay. I’ll stay until he kicks me out, and then I’ll do my stalking thing in the hallway, alright? For god’s sake, will you just let me see your dad?”

There’s a pause, and then she says, shortly, “Meet me at the front entrance of Stark Tower.”

Fifteen minutes later, he gives up on driving anywhere near the tower and just parks. He jogs the final six blocks. There are multiple police lines in his way, but the officers and agents wave him through without stopping him, and he assumes Romanov has called ahead to let him in.

She meets him at the front entrance, stitches in her forehead and a limp to her step, and walks him inside. She looks exhausted, tired down to her bones and then some.

“He’s not alright,” she begins, reciting the facts with as much emotion as if they were plot points in an action movie. “He was captured by the enemy. They forced him to work for them. He was rescued, and then immediately went into battle against an alien army. He’s lost friends, and coworkers, and his husband.”

“Stop for a second,” Barney says, pulling her over to the side of the hallway. “Have you even stopped since the battle?”

She blinks at him, and he knows that look. The look that comes about when you feel like you can’t stop to breathe or think because it’ll all come crashing down and it’ll be horrible.

“Okay,” he says. “I know you think I’m a complete asshole, and you’re right, I am. But I’m here now, and I’m not going anywhere.”

She frowns at him. “I don’t need you to explain to me how to process my trauma.”

“I know,” he says, “I just. Clint adopted you. And now you’re telling me he had a husband, who I’m guessing you were close with.”

She closes her eyes for just a moment.

“What was his name?”

“Phil,” she says. “Phil Coulson. Loki killed him.”

“I’m sorry,” Barney says.

She nods and takes a deep breath. “Anything else?”

He shakes his head, and she leads him down the hall.

A tall blonde guy is standing guard outside Clint’s door when they arrive. Barney realizes distantly that it’s Captain America, but he’s distracted because the door is open and he can hear the beep of machinery in the room beyond, and he’s flashing back to Clint in the hospital in Cleveland and leaving him and everything that’s happened since then to lead them to where they are.

Agent Romanov must see his hesitation; she says, “Last chance to leave.”

Instead, Barney takes a deep breath and walks in the door.

Clint’s lying in bed, propped up halfway. He wakes up when Barney reaches the foot of the bed and blinks a couple of times. His eyes widen, and Barney swallows a sudden lump in his throat and grips the rail of the footboard, imagines all the things that Clint could say right now, terrible things that Barney would completely, utterly, unilaterally deserve.

Then Clint smiles, the tiniest of smiles, and says, “Hey.”

All of the tension rushes out of Barney at once, and he lets out a gusty breath and says, “Hey back.”

“You look the same,” Clint says, the barest hint of wonder in a voice thick with exhaustion, and Barney takes a few steps closer. “You look exactly the same.”

“Yeah, well, you look like shit,” Barney responds, and forces a smirk. “I feel like shit,” Clint says.

And then hugging happens.

Barney pulls back after a minute and eases Clint back onto the bed. “You hungry? Thirsty? Where are your snacks hidden?” He glances over the side table and looks in the drawer.

“Just ask Steve to get something,” Clint says. “He likes to be useful.”

“Hey, Rogers!” Barney calls, and the man -- Captain America himself -- steps in. “Get this man some snacks, for god’s sake.”

Rogers glances at Clint, who nods, and then nods back and steps out of the room again.

“Huh,” Barney says.

“Told you it’d work,” Clint replies. Barney smiles at him, because Clint.

Barney finally sits in the visitor’s chair at the head of the bed, at a loss for what else to say. Clint says, “I’ll probably pass out again before Steve gets back.”

Barney gestures to the IV line, “They got you on the good stuff?”

“They got me on everything,” Clint replies. “I”m not entirely sure you’re really here.”

“I am. I’m not going anywhere,” Barney promises, and he means it, he means it this time. He does.

“Huh,” Clint says. “Okay, Barney.” Then he falls asleep.

Barney doesn’t move. He sits and waits, about ten minutes, and then Rogers comes back with a tray loaded with two covered plates.

“He out?” Rogers asks.

“For a while now, yeah.”

Steve passes Barney one of the plates and puts the other on the side table. Barney eats mechanically, because in all the stress and running around he doesn’t exactly remember when his last meal was.

“Natasha went to get your stuff out of your car,” Rogers explains, when they’ve both made it through most of their meals.

“She finally believe I’m staying?” Barney asks.

Rogers shrugs. “She likes to feel useful.”

That’s not an answer. “Seems there’s a lot of that going around.”

Barney looks over at Clint and bites his lip. “Anything I need to know about what happened that wasn’t on the news?”

Rogers glances over at Clint, nods, and starts talking.

*

**Author's Note:**

> Let's all just take a moment to reflect on what Paul would say about this nonsense.


End file.
